LOGOS

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
Representative Historical Perspectives

The problem of what philosophy is is
itself a fundamental philosophical question that has elicited a rich historical
diversity of distinctive philosophical definitions. Like other fundamental
questions in Western philosophy, there is no definitive answer to this question
universally accepted by all philosophers. However, one should strenuously resist
the typical temptation to dismiss these diverse definitions as a bewildering
array of mutually contradictory, and ultimately unsatisfactory, viewpoints.
Rather, from an inclusive standpoint internal to the historical
complexity of philosophical practice, it is more precise and productive to
classify them as interpretiveprofiles or perspectives. As
such, they propose individualized, partial philosophical interpretations that
emphasize, as an essential element or central component of philosophy
itself, a particular philosophical attitude, methodical practice, or theoretical
tendency. Therefore, adapting an insightful and innovative concept of definition
developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), we will interpret the following
definitions as pointing to distinct yet interrelated aspects of an interwoven
network of family resemblances.* (Cf. the classical model of
philosophical definition)**

*Family resemblance:
Ludwig Wittgenstein’s (1889-1951) concept of definition, in contrast to the
classical model, is composed of an interwoven set of similarities (like the
similar facial features of family members) that lack a common denominator
or essential core characteristic shared by every member of the class
(like family members that don’t share one identical feature in common).

Example: As a college student, you see many new faces
the first week of a new school year. Someone in your French class looks a
little like someone in your History course, who looks a little like
someone in your Philosophy class. Later in the semester you discover that
two of them are brothers and the third is a cousin. In contrast to a strictly
formal identity, we could say these three individuals exhibit a structural
kinship, i.e., similarities that are not reducible to a singular
characteristic.

** The Classical Modelof Philosophical Definition: Inaugurated with Aristotle’s categorial
distinction between genus and species, perceives an identical form
or basic structure among dissimilar things (broadly interpreted, any kind
of object, event, or entity). It opposes any premature, provincial, restrictive
definition of the subject that excludes what is initially foreign, alien, or
unfamiliar. It is a conceptual way of thinking that perceives structural
(formal) identity among otherwise dissimilar things.

Example: After viewing, over a period of time, the
sun, the moon, car tires, bicycle wheels, coins, Frisbees, baseballs, and dinner
plates, a child realizes that they all express or exhibit the
same shape. In other words, these objects are formally identical
(same form, shape, structure) although they are concretely different (in
their specific or particular content). This type of thinking is called
abstract because the reasoning agent abstracts (separates out,
extracts) the general, common form from the several objects that embody,
express, or exhibit it. Accordingly, these diverse objects, despite
specific differences, are all members of the class of circular things.

1. ...when Leon the tyrant of Philius asked him who he was, he said, "A
philosopher," and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went
to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as
spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy
for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth.

—Diogenes Laertius on Pythagoras (C. 550-500 BCE)

2. The unexamined life is not worth living.

—Socrates (470-399 BCE)

3. The feeling of wonder is the mark of the philosopher, for all philosophy
has its origins in wonder.

—Plato
(427-347 BCE)

4. A sense of wonder started men philosophizing, in ancient times as well as
today. Their wondering is aroused, first, by trivial matters; but they continue
on from there to wonder about less mundane matters such as the changes of the
moon, sun, and stars, and the beginnings of the universe. What is the result of
this puzzlement? An awesome feeling of ignorance. Men began to philosophize,
therefore, to escape ignorance....

—Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

5. Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become
weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being
of the soul. The man who says that the season for this study has not yet come or
is already past is like the man who says it is too early or too late for
happiness.

—Epicurus (341-270 BCE)

6. The first and most necessary division in philosophy is that which has to
do with the application of the principles, as, for example, Do no lie. The
second deals with the demonstrations, as, for example, How comes it that we
ought not to lie? The third confirms and discriminates between these processes,
as, for example, How does it come that this is a proof?...Therefore...the most
necessary of all, and the one in which we ought to rest, is the first (division
in philosophy). But we do the opposite; for we spend our time in the third
division, and all our zeal is devoted to it, while we utterly neglect the first.

—Epictetus
(C. 50-130)

7. The love of wisdom (or philosophy) is the illumination of the intelligent
mind by the pure wisdom (defined as the self-sufficient living mind and sole
primaeval reason of all things), and is a kind of return and recall to it, so
that it seems at once the pursuit of wisdom, the pursuit of divinity and the
friendship of that pure mind.

—Boethius (C. 480-524)

8. Philosophy is doubt.

—Michel de Montaigne (1533-92)

9. The word "philosophy" means the study of wisdom, and by
"wisdom" is meant not only prudence in everyday affairs, but also a
perfect knowledge of all the things that mankind is capable of knowing, both for
the conduct of life and the preservation of health and the discovery of all
manner of skills. In order for this kind of knowledge to be perfect, it must be
deduced from first causes; thus in order to set about philosophizing--and it is
this activity to which the term "to philosophize" strictly refers--we
must start with the search for first causes or principles.

—René Descartes (1596-1650)

10. By PHILOSOPHY is understood the knowledge acquired by reasoning, from
the manner of the generation of any thing to the properties; or from the
properties, to some possible generation of the same; to the end to be able to
produce, as far as matter, and human force permit, such effects, as human life
requireth.

—Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

11. I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the
peace.

—Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

12. While the (philosophers) attempt this arduous task, they are deterred by
no difficulties; but proceeding from particular instances to general principles,
they still push on their enquiries to principles more general, and rest not
satisfied till they arrive at those original principles, by which, in every
science, all human curiosity must be bounded.

—David Hume (1711-1776)

13. The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

—Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

14. Philosophy is the system of all philosophical knowledge....the
legislation of human reason (philosophy) has two objects, nature and freedom,
and therefore contains not only the law of nature, but also the moral law,
presenting them at first in two distinct systems, but ultimately in one single
philosophical system. The philosophy of nature deals with all that is,
the philosophy of morals with that which ought to be. All philosophy is
either knowledge arising out of pure reason, or knowledge obtained by reason
from empirical principles. The former is termed pure, the latter empirical
philosophy.

—Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

15. The love of truth, faith in the power of the mind, is the first condition
in Philosophy....For Philosophy aims at understanding what is unchangeable,
eternal, in and for itself: its end is Truth....as the immediate source from
which all else proceeds, both all the laws of nature and all the manifestations
of life and consciousness....

—G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831)

16. Philosophy means love of, striving for, wisdom. Thus, not just any sort
of knowledge will satisfy the philosopher, but only the knowledge that is
wisdom... There is no wisdom for man if there is none in the objective course of
things. The first presupposition of philosophy as the striving for wisdom is
thus that there is wisdom in...being, in the world itself.

—Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854)

17. The two main requirements for philosophizing are: firstly, to have the
courage not to keep any question back; and secondly, to attain a clear
consciousness of any thing that goes without saying so as to comprehend it as a
problem. Finally, the mind must, if it is really to philosophize, also be truly
disengaged: it must prosecute no particular goal or aim, and thus be free from
the enticement of will, but devote itself undividedly to the instruction which
the perceptible world and its own consciousness imparts to it.... Philosophy,
just as much as art and poetry, must have its source in perceptual comprehension
of the world: nor, however much the head needs to remain on top, ought it be so
cold-blooded a business that the whole man, heart and head, is not finally
involved and affected through and through.

—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

18. The object of all true Philosophy is to frame a system which shall
comprehend human life under every aspect, social as well as individual. It
embraces, therefore, the three kinds of phenomena of which our life consists,
Thoughts, Feelings and Actions.

—Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

19. The immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of
history, is to unmask human self-alienation in its secular form now that
it has been unmasked in its sacred form....Philosophy can only be
realized by the abolition of the proletariat, and the proletariat can only be
abolished by the realization of philosophy.

—Karl Marx (1818-1883)

20. Great dilemma: is
philosophy an art or a science? Both in its purposes and its results it is an
art. But it uses the same means as science—conceptual representation. Philosophy
is a form of artistic invention. There is no appropriate category for
philosophy; consequently, we must make up and characterize a species [for it]….

The concept of the philosopher and the types [of philosophers]. What do they all have in common? The
philosopher is either the product of his culture or else he is hostile towards
it. He is contemplative like the plastic artist, compassionate like the
religious man, and, like the man of science, is concerned with causes. He tries
to permit all the sounds of the world to resonate within himself and to present
this total sound outside of himself by means of concepts: expanding himself to
the macrocosm while, at the same time, maintaining reflective
circumspection—like the actor or dramatic poet who transforms himself and at the
same time retains his circumspection so that he can project himself outwards….

A philosopher: that is a man who constantly experiences, sees, hears, suspects,
hopes, and dreams extraordinary things; who is struck by his own thoughts as if
they came from outside, from above and below, as a species of events and
lightning flashes peculiar to him; who is perhaps himself a storm
pregnant with new lightnings; a portentous man, around whom there is always
rumbling and mumbling and gaping and something uncanny going on. A philosopher:
alas, a being who often runs away from himself, is often afraid of himself—but
whose curiosity always makes him “come to himself” again.

—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

21. The task of philosophy today is human self-reflection and the reflection
of society upon itself....For it alone can provide coherence, ultimate
intelligibility, and a foundation for the various human projects, but it does so
not by finding the solution to transcendent questions, but only by means of a
fuller, more mature consciousness of reality.

—Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911)

22. ...philosophy, which deals with positive truth...contents itself with
observations such as come within the range of every man’s normal
experience....These observations escape the untrained eye precisely because they
permeate our whole lives, just as a man who never takes off his blue spectacles
soon ceases to see the blue tinge.

—C. S. Peirce (1839-1914)

23. Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human
pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out of the widest
vistas....No one of us can get along without the far-flashing beams of light it
sends over the world’s perspectives.

—William James (1842-1910)

24. You philosophize when you reflect critically upon what you are actually
doing in your world. What you are doing is, of course, in the first place,
living. And life involves passions, faiths, doubts, and courage. The critical
inquiry into what all these things mean and imply is philosophy.

—Josiah Royce (1855-1916)

25. The task which the philosopher puts to himself, his life-goal as a
philosopher: universal science of the world, universal, definitive knowledge,
the universe of truths in themselves about the world, the world in itself....
From its earliest beginnings philosophy has claimed to be rigorous science. What
is more, it has claimed to be the science that satisfies the loftiest
theoretical needs and renders possible from an ethico-religious point of view a
life regulated by pure rational norms.... During no period of its development
has philosophy been capable of living up to this claim of being rigorous
science....

—Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

26. What philosophy has lacked most of all is precision. Philosophical
systems are not cut to the measure of the reality in which we live; they are too
wide for reality.... We were saying that philosophy must be brought to a higher
precision, put in a position to solve more special problems, be made an
auxiliary to, and if need be, reformer of positive science. Let us have done
with great systems embracing all the possible, and sometimes even the
impossible! Let us be content with the real, mind and matter.

—Henri Bergson (1859-1941)

27. These remarks are preparatory to presenting a conception of philosophy;
namely, that philosophy is inherently criticism, having its distinctive position
among various modes of criticism in its generality; a criticism of criticisms,
as it were....Philosophy is and can be nothing but this critical operation and
function become aware of itself and its implications, pursued deliberately and
systematically. It starts from actual situations of belief, conduct and
appreciative perception which are characterized by immediate qualities of good
and bad, and from the modes of critical judgment current at any given time in
all the regions of value; these are its data, its subject-matter. These values,
criticisms, and critical methods, it subjects to further criticism as
comprehensive and consistent as possible.

—John Dewey (1859-1952)

28. Philosophy is---a thing which is inevitable.... This position of
the philosopher, which accompanies his extreme intellectual heroism and would be
so uncomfortable if it did not bear with it his inevitable vocation, imposes on
his thought what I call the imperative of autonomy.... Philosophy is a science
without suppositions.

—José
Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)

29. For even though it is linked to science and never occurs without it,
philosophy is wholly different from science. Philosophy is the thinking by which
I become aware of Being itself through inner action; or rather it is the
thinking which prepares the ascent to Transcendence, remembers it, and in an
exalted moment accomplishes the ascent itself as a thinking act of the whole
human being.

—Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)

30. Philosophy is an attitude of mind towards doctrines ignorantly
entertained.... The philosophic attitude is a resolute attempt to enlarge the
understanding of the scope of application of every notion which enters into our
current thought. The philosophic attempt takes every word, and every phrase, in
the verbal expression of thought, and asks, What does it mean? It refuses to be
satisfied by the conventional presupposition that every sensible person knows
the answer.

—Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

31. Philosophy is concerned with tracing the limits of language and therefore
of thought from within.... Philosophy, as we use the word, is a fight
against the fascination which forms of expression exert upon us....Philosophy is
therefore no theory, something with dogmas, and so on, but it is an activity. It
deals with reality as it is simultaneously given to us and distorted in
language.

—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

32. Everyone considers the assertion correct that philosophy is a matter of
reason. However, this assertion is perhaps a premature and hasty answer to the
question, "What is philosophy?" for we can immediately oppose new
questions to this answer. What is reason? Where and through whom was it decided
what reason is?...We find the answer to the question, "What is
philosophy?" not through historical assertions about the definitions of
philosophy but through conversing with that which has been handed down to us as
the Beings of beings.

—Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

33. What can be expected of philosophy at this particular moment in history
is first of all that it make clear, as I have just done in a partial but
significant way, the danger of dehumanization which accompanies the intensive
development of technology in our world. Philosophy must bring to light the
profound but usually unarticulated uneasiness man experiences in this
technocratic or bureaucratic milieu where what is deepest in him is not only
ignored but continually trampled underfoot.

—Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973)

34. Philosophy...arouses us to what is problematic in our own existence and
in that of the world, to such a point that we shall never be cured of searching
for a solution....Philosophy is in history, and is never independent of
historical discourse....It is never content to accept its historical situation
(as it is not content to accept its own past). It changes this situation by
revealing it to itself and, therefore, by giving it the opportunity of entering
into conversation with other times and other places where its truth appears.

—Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1907-1961)

35. It should now be sufficiently clear that if the philosopher is to uphold
his claim to make a special contribution to the stock of our knowledge, he must
not attempt to formulate speculative truths, or to look for first principles, or
to make a priori judgments about the validity of our empirical beliefs.
He must, in fact, confine himself to works of clarification and analysis....

—A. J. Ayer (1910-1989)

36. The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very
uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life
imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual
beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in
his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.

—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

37. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the
fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has
three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—come
afterwards. These are games....I have never seen anyone die for the ontological
argument...the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.